


All That Matters

by fandomgeek14



Category: Bachelorette Party (Visual Novel), Mother of the Year (Visual Novel), Open Heart (Visual Novels), Platinum (Visual Novel)
Genre: Complicated Relationships, F/M, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Fluff and Angst, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Near Death Experiences, Panic Attacks, my writing will get better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:35:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26492761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomgeek14/pseuds/fandomgeek14
Summary: Alicia Hardy and Ethan Ramsey’s relationship is complicated, it always has been but after Alicia spends a night helping Ethan cook chicken, things might be looking up for them getting together, but when death comes knocking at Alicia’s door. They might have missed their chance...
Relationships: Danny/Sienna Trinh, Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart), Sienna Trinh & Main Character (Open Heart)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. All Over A Chicken

**Author's Note:**

> My first Open Heart fic! (So sorry if it’s not that good)  
> Technically a crossover with a few other books as I attempt to explain why all my white MCs I’ve used with the OH face look the same (and how I explain my mistake in naming three of my MCs the same surname by complete accident) but that won’t be until later chapters.  
> Starts at the premium scene with Ethan in chapter 8 book 2.  
> Fic title from the version of All That Matters from the Finding Neverland musical sung by Christina Perri.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alicia leaves her boss’s apartment after helping him with his dad, expecting nothing more than to go back to work tomorrow as colleagues and peers. But Ethan does something that even he wasn’t expecting...

Alicia checked the temperature on the oven in Ethan’s kitchen before turning back in the direction of the entrance to the kitchen listening to the inaudible muttering from the other room. 

Today had certainly been an eventful day, from convincing Ethan to join the softball team to winning the game despite having no experience in the sport previously and ending up back in Ethan’s home and having a somewhat therapeutic cooking session that ended with his dad, Alan Ramsey turning up, and encouraging Ethan to open up, she would tell you that it had been one of the best days of her residency, except- 

Except, she’d torn her friends apart, she’d accused Aurora of giving Tobias the idea of poaching her patient despite not having all the facts and it had caused a rift between them, one she hadn’t wanted- and she had no idea how to fix it. 

Ideally, she needed to go home and think about it, and figure out how to fix it and betraying her stomach growling anxiously for some food, she wouldn’t be much use here if her head wasn’t completely in focus for the dinner with her boss’s dad. She should probably give them some privacy anyway. 

Tiptoeing quietly towards the door, she chanced a glance towards Ethan and his dad and smiled. 

She was glad Ethan was finally working things out with his dad and telling him how he felt, whichthat was was something she could never really do with her dad, even if it did make her a hypocrite in the long run. 

Turning back to the door, she pressed down the door handle, shoving all her instincts to say goodbye to Ethan out of the way, she didn’t have a part in this evening now and she’d see him tomorrow. 

“Alicia, where are you going?” Ethan’s voice questioned from behind her, she turned back in his direction and saw the surprise on his face from her actions.

“Home. I think you two need some privacy.” 

His face dropped “but the chicken...” 

Alicia smiled in amusement at his fixation with the bird cooking in the oven.

“Bring me some tomorrow” 

The older doctorglanced back and forth between Alicia and his dad, then nodded, gratefully.

“Wait here, dad.” Ethan turned to the younger doctor “Alicia, I’ll walk you out” 

Before Alicia could protest, she was standing outside Ethan’s building with him asking her if she could get home okay. 

“Sure. I’ll call a car” she replied, turning to go and do just that, unsure of what else to do or say, _what else was there? Goodbye? She’d already done that in his house._ But then she felt a hand gently lay on her shoulder and she was turned towards the brown haired man.

“Alicia...”

Alicia felt herself being pulled closer to Ethan as he rested a hand on her cheek, tenderly and she knew she couldn’t pull away from his low tone of voice full of longing. 

“Thank you” 

“Ethan...” his name played out on her lips as she made her decision, she could either move away, and pretend that never happened, denying every feeling and impulse in her body to rekindle the relationship she had with the attending or she could- 

She leaned in and Ethan met her in the middle, his arms slipping round her and pulling her closer to him and Alicia found herself reciprocating the kiss desperately with a fierceness that she hadn’t known was in her, giving into what she had longed for since the last kiss at the start of her second year at Donahue’s before they returned to being just colleagues. Ethan deepened the kiss, with equal longing and intensity and Alicia could feel herself becoming out of breath, and she reluctantly forced herself to pull away, and her green eyes met blue. 

“Ethan... what does this mean?” 

The reply came quickly but sincerely

“I don’t know” 

He leaned back in for another kiss, softer and more tender than the last

“We’ll talk about it later” 

Alicia nodded in agreement before melting into him, as the third kiss lengthened, as she felt the familiarity of the situation sink in, wishing nothing more than for this moment to last forever, just her and Ethan. It was full of promise, promise of what could be, and when Ethan pulled away more reluctantly than the first time, and their eyes met again, it was one lingering look that confirmed that Ethan was going to keep that promise, whatever it took. 

But she suddenly was forced back to her senses as she remembered the car she had to call, and slowly, she let go of Ethan, and moved away down the street to call one, and when it arrived minutes later, she turned back to the building, spotting Ethan just inside the entrance watching her, and giving him a warm smile she got in, and left for her house, wondering what tomorrow would bring, for the both of them...


	2. Collateral Damage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A couple of days after Ethan somewhat rekindled their relationship, Alicia gets in even more trouble than she was in her first year....

When she wondered what tomorrow would bring, she hadn’t expected the day after that to be ringing any alarm bells! 

But here Alicia was, in the middle of a assassination attempt from Senator EdFarrugia’s aide, Travis Perry, trying her best to defuse the situation and get to Bobby, the hospital security guard, and try her best to save his life. 

She gingerly took a step towards Danny and Bobby but Travis raised the canister again, in Alicia’s direction, his face contorted with anger and pain.

“It didn’t have to be this way” 

The doctor watched in horror as Travis’s finger started to pull at the pin on the canister again, and stared at Bobby and Danny, and then at Travis. Once that pin is pulled everyone, in this room will be contaminated, and she couldn’t stop it! _They really were all just pawns in a game- all just collateral damage in his plan for revenge against a dodgy politician._

_ This situation was spiralling out of her control and soon- _

Someone pushed her out of the way, she stumbled trying to regain her balance as she watched Raf tackle Travis to the ground.

“Raf!”

“Aah” and Alicia watched out of the corner of her eye as senator Farrugia bolted out of the room and down the hall in the confusion. 

“NO!” Travis yelled angrily after his intended victim as Raf tried to grab the canister but Travis squeezed down hard and a light hiss fills the room. Alicia’s eyes widened in horror as the aerosol canister deployed and spread across the room, covering mostly Raf and Travis but there was some on Danny and it wasn’t long before a light mist settled on her hands and her throat tickled from the chemicals. 

Travis gagged and gasped as coughing filled the room, his face glistening with oily clear substance.

“Oh my god” Raf’s eyes widened in shock

“Oh no... oh no...” Danny gasped

In complete and utter shock, Alicia glanced over at Raf, and noted that he was covered in the oily sheen, her face instantly filled with a look of dread and she shuddered. 

“Raf, you’re...” 

“It’s on all of us... what the hell is it?” Heasked

But before Alicia could say anything else to the ex-paramedic, another voice echoed from the window to the room. 

“Alicia?” 

The blonde Doctor looked quickly towards the window in the direction of the voice and found Ethan, his eyes wide with shock and confusion from what he was witnessing. 

“oh god” Alicia whispered suddenly very aware of her own fear “what did we just breathe?” 

Her throat tingled with pain as she looked at her friends in the room, Danny sat near Bobby’s body stunned at the attack, and Raf’s skin shining in the light where the spray covered him.

“I...I... It’s on me... it’s all over me...” Danny muttered in shock. 

The room was filled with a horrific coughing and spluttering from Travis laying on the floor, or at least he was, but to Alicia’s dismay, Rafael grabbed him by the shirt and pinned him against the wall. 

“What the hell was in that thing?” He demanded 

“I...I don’t...” the criminal managed before twisting away from Raf and vomiting in the bin.

Alicia turned to face Ethan, her mind racing in a panic as she watched his eyes grow even more wider in horror. 

“Alicia...”

Alicia’s eyes did the same thing as Ethan’s and widened even more (if that was even possible) as she realised something about the room they were in. 

_The door’s open. The hospital‘s in danger. **Ethan’s in danger**_ **.**

“Ethan, Don’t come in here!” She told him, urgently, panic rising in her chest as she jumped into action and raced as fast as she could to the room entrance, holding it tightly shut, as she met the attending’s eyes through the glass of the window, noting the confusion and concern in his expression as she did, a look so far from two nights ago, but despite this, his voice was calm and collected as he spoke. 

“What’s going on, Alicia?” 

She took a breath trying to remain calm before replying, but she couldn’t stop her eyebrows frowning in worry for her friend’s wellbeing.

“Travis just tried to kill senator Ed with whatever was in that canister. Ed got out but we have no idea what was in there.” She paused before continuing, there was no point in hiding exactly how much danger she and her friends were currently in, not from Ethan, not when the entire hospital is at risk, the patients always come first. “Bobby took a full blast of it to the face, and Danny and Raf were both right there when Travis deployed it. And I breathed some of it in. Whatever it is, it’s clearly dangerous. We can’t risk it getting out into the rest of the hospital” 

She glanced back at Travis, still heading into the bin before looking back at Ethan 

“You’re right. We have to stop it from spreading” 

“I...I don’t... I don’t feel so good” Danny lurched to the side and threw up hard, as Raf comfortingly patted his shoulder “whatever this is... it’s bad” 

There the sound of a body hitting the floor and Travis collapsed, shaking violently, but Alicia couldn’t help but look towards Bobby, laying completely unresponsive on the floor. 

“Dammit!” Raf cursed angrily. 

The blonde haired Doctor forced her eyes away from her friends for a second as she scanned the room for any other possible exits, her heart pounding in her chest as she spots an air duct near the ceiling. 

_ Okay air duct. Alicia, you’re still in control, do what you do best- and help people.  _

“Raf, help me! We need to seal the vent!” 

“On it” 

Alicia moved away from the door and to the cupboard, searching for anything that she could use to stop the agent from escaping into the hospital, until she spotted some plastic sheets used for exam tables and some medical tape. She hurried up to the duct and climbed up onto Rafael’s laced together fingers, securing it in place in front of the vent. 

“This‘ll have to do” 

Climbing back down, she turned to Raf, his eyes blood shot. She gave him a concerned look.

He was right there when the aerosol canister deployed, tackling Travis to the ground. 

“Raf... are you feeling okay? You were so close when that thing went off...”

“Don’t worry about me. Bobby took a much bigger hit. Not to mention Travis himself” 

_ Right. He’s right, head in the game, Alicia, prioritise patients.  She thought  even if one of them tried to kill you minutes ago.  _

“You hanging in there Danny?” She asked the nurse on the floor slumped against a wall, his breathing hard, with a glassy look in his eyes.

“I...I don’t..” he wheezed as Alicia put her fingers to his wrist and after a struggle finds aslow, weak pulse before doing the same to Bobby but- finding nothing. 

Without the equipment, Bobby was definitely going to die and in fact, they were probably too late- _oh God_. 

“Alicia... did much get on you?” Raf asked

“I’m not sure. only a little I think” 

“Good” 

She glanced back at the window. Ethan was talking on the phone, his expression completely unreadable, as staff evacuated the rooms around them quickly and calmly, he hangs up the phone. 

“The C.D.C are on their way. You’ll be fine, Alicia. You’ll both be fine” 

She wasn’t quite sure who Ethan was reassuring, her, or himself, as he gave her a comforting look but she saw the terror hidden in his eyes, she knew him too well not to see it. 

And if Ethan was terrified, then they were in serious trouble....


	3. Lifeline (Part One)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alicia has some time to think given her current situation and comes to a realisation that she should have made months ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this is short and terrible I’m not feeling very well so I thought I’d do a shorter chapter this time round and I’ll make it up in chapter 4! 😊

Hours passed, The evening rays started to been through the protected room, and all Alicia could do was wait, her friends were out helping find out what was wrong with her, Danny and Raf.

...What was killing them. 

She was sat on the floor, watching Raf quietly from there, she hadn’t quite mustered up the courage to go to his side yet, scared that if she got closer, she’d break him even more, somehow make him worse. Worse like Danny. 

Danny, he was in special care, one of her first friends at Edenbrook and he was dying and it was her fault. If she hadn’t gone charging in-

**_ Sienna.  _ **

The thought of Sienna was what stopped her from prematurely guilt tripping herself. Sienna would be devistated if both of them kicked the bucket and Alicia wasn’t about to let that happen. If she had to die for Danny to live, then do be it, if it could give her best friend who had sat there trying to comfort her to no end. The second dolphin in this sea of sharks, who deserved happiness more than herself, and if she had to die to do that then- then she was going to do that. 

Doesn’t matter what Ethan said, that she couldn’t think about giving up even if it was almost impossible not to. Well she wasn’t going to give up per-say not yet, she was going to try and make a bargain with the universe to let Danny live. No matter what it will cost. Even if she had to sacrifice her life in his place to do it, for Sienna’s happiness she’d risk everything, her job, her potential relationship with Ethan, even never seeing her family ever again. 

_ Oh no.  _

How did it take this long for her family to come to mind? Oh they wouldn’t be happy if they learned that she hadn’t thought about them until hours into her quarantine with a fatality unknown affliction.

_Did they know what was happening? Did they know that she was in here? We’re they trying everything to get to her? To be there?_

Someone must have told them, Ethan and Naveen wouldn’t let that slip through the cracks, and even if they did an attempted assassination attempt on a senator and potential election candidate wouldn’t stay quiet for long and the press were probably already knocking on their door, so chances are, they would know already. 

She never got to tell Ethan about her family, after all why would she up until recently he was definitely nothing more than her boss. But she’d mentioned him to her family, being her boss and medical idol but now she wondered what he’d say if he’d had made the call to her parents and told them that she was in a life threatening situation. What would they say to that? 

They’d be worried, that’s for sure. Or at least she was certain most of her family would be with the exception of her dad, who would certainly be chuffed that he was proven right at last. 

**_ Hospitals weren’t safe.  _ **

Yeah, Alicia had told a bit of a lie when she bumped into Ethan’s mother a few weeks back. Her mom was supportive, and proud, Hell, she wore her pride around on her sleeve but her dad, well, he was less so. 

Simon Hardy was not the best dad in the world... dad, disgraced army vet turned store owner, conspiracist nut, and unfortunately a severe alcoholic. Which of course, she knew the alcoholism wasn’t his fault, it’s a terrible addiction that’s hard to break and a very serious issue. But his conspiracy filled mind made his alcohol fuelled delusions feel real and when he found out Alicia was serious about being a doctor, about “fraternising with the enemy”- well, her dad had made the decision to hate her long ago, and she didn’t want to remember those details, not now. 

_ They’d probably get to the hospital too late anyway.  _

Not that her dad would have cared, he’d probably used her death as an excuse to go on a rant about how Big Pharma was out to get them and that the Government worked with the doctors at Edenbrook to kill his precious little girl.

 _ for the record, dad _ _,_ she thought to herself,  _I’mwas in the safest place possible, even if I’mpotentially dying._

Because she had good, kind, people who were going to help her, Raf and Danny make it through this and she trusted them to save the three of them. Hell, Ethan would probably go and fight death in a fist fight to keep her safe. He wasn’t one to back down easily, not in the face of death anyway, not after last year. 

And Alicia believed in him. 

Because- 

_ because he was her lifeline.  _


	4. Lifeline (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan has a hard time staying in control when Alicia is in danger and things keep getting worse, hopefully Sienna has some good news (basically it’s a retelling of the scene in the lab in chapter 11)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this fic has been on hiatus for a while, since September. I’m in my last year at Uni and that’s hard enough except now we’ve also got the virus that shall not be named making it even harder, so I’ve been struggling with Uni and my mental health for a while but I finally got round to part 4 even if it’s a short chapter. I will be continuing with this fic, it just might take a while- also OH 3 is releasing next week! So I’m excited for that and chapter 5 of this fic is in the works.

“Goddamn it!” 

Ethan exclaimed in frustrated anger as he chucked the crumpled up negative test results for any botulinum makers across the room catching the other members of his team’s attention. 

“No markers for Botulinum I take it?” June frowned 

“None” 

“We can’t let ourselves lose hope. Alicia needs us” Baz said, noting the absolute state their boss was in

“That’s right. We need to keep working methodically. We have dozens of options left that explain all the symptoms we’ve seen, so we just tick through them one by one” 

Ethan knew that was the most logical answer. He knew she was right, he knew Baz was right, they couldn’t give up hope, they had to work through this methodically, but all logic was thrown out in favour of the rising panic in his chest at the thought of losing Alicia.

“We don’t have time to patiently rule out every single thing that can poison a human body. Alicia needs us  now ”

And just like that, the Ethan’s frustration at the results was replaced with frustration at himself. 

Alicia needed them. She needed  him , and at the moment, he couldn’t be there for her. 

He couldn’t let her down. He wasn’t going to let it become another situation like the one last year with Naveen, he sure as hell wasn’t going to give up on her. He couldn’t let her die. 

“I’m afraid I have some bad news... Danny’s slipped into a coma, and the nurse caring for him says there weren’t any new symptoms since we moved him. I don’t think we’ll learn anything more from his case” Baz explained 

Ethan sighed his look of anger dropping as he realised the impossible. 

“Which means we need access to Travis if we’re going to make any headway on this”

“But we don’t have it. We just have to hope the FBI shares their findings from their private investigations with us” 

“And that Alicia and Rafael can hold on long enough for that to do them any good...”

“Um doctors?” 

Dr Sienna Trinh, who Ethan recognised as one of Alicia’s housemates, stood at the door nervously. 

“Dr. Trinh. What can we do for you?” 

“Actually, I think I can do something for you. And for Danny and Alicia and Raf. I-I know where Senator Farrugia is hiding” 

“He’s still here?” June asked

Sienna nodded looking at Ethan with determination “and I think he knows where they took Travis” 

“Travis’s symptom progression could help us narrow down the search! Any symptoms he shared with the other victims we could be  certain were important!” Baz realised 

“It could help us treat Alicia, Rafael and Danny more effectively. We might even get a diagnosis in time!” June agreed “Unless you think the feds will reach out to us on their own...”

No. Ethan almost scoffed as remembered his conversation with the agent as they moved Travis out of the hospital. Anything they learned was to be a ‘matter of national security’, there was no way they’d reach out to them if anything happened. 

“No, I don’t think that’s likely” 

“Then we have to talk to Ed. He’s our only chance to get more information” Sienna pointed out. 

“Get answers from Ed?”

Ethan thought for a second as all three pairs of eyes looked at him for an answer, a decision, probably thinking that he was going to say no, he closed his eyes to think this through properly, He usually would have said no, it was too risky, they could get into all sorts of trouble doing this and that’s more than the hospital needed right now, hell he’d said no to helping Alicia break out the Senator who caused this situation in the first place out of Kenmore, because of that risk, but now, in that moment there was only one route he could take, one decision one clear answer. _**Alicia needed him**_. The image of her telling him she was freaking out, naturally worrying over what was going to happen to her and her friends, staring at the spot Bobby had died minutes ago, struggling to think about anything else. 

He’d promised her he’d fix it. He swore to it and if this was going to help Alicia, then he wasn’t going to give this up. The trouble was worth it if he could keep her in the world. 

She was counting on him to keep her alive. He was her lifeline and she was his. He could not let her down! 

“Let’s go” Ethan agreed “you two can handle things here?” He asked his two teammates

“Of course. We can’t get test results back faster if you’re here anyway” 

“Go find us some answers, Ethan. We’ll keep going down the list” 

“Follow me” Sienna said determination still sounding in her voice, Ethan turned and without a second thought, followed Sienna out of the lab. 


End file.
